Hybrid Fiber Coax (HFC) cable networks were originally built to deliver broadcast-quality TV signals to homes. The wide availability and extremely wide bandwidth of these systems led to the extension of their functionality to include delivery of high-speed broadband data signals to end-users. Data over Cable System Interface Specifications (DOCSIS), a protocol developed under the leadership of Cable Television Laboratories, Inc., has been established as the major industry standard for two-way communications over HFC cable plants.
Large cable networks comprise distributed video and data facilities. In a typical network architecture, video is distributed to subscribers in geographically segmented markets via a dedicated headend that services multiple hubs and nodes. Regional data centers support multiple headends through separate fiber links. Coordination of subscriber video services and subscriber data services (e.g., e-mail, web browsing, VoIP) is required for billing purposes and, increasingly, to provide cross-over services that use both video facilities and data facilities. For example, video terminating equipment (the “set top box” or “STB”) providing subscribers access to e-mail, web-browsing, and voice services.
Telephone communications are not always desirable, or may not be desirable at a particular time. A television viewer who is enjoying programming often must choose between continuing a program and answering an incoming telephone call. A call may simply be ignored, but without some knowledge of the caller, the television viewer who ignores an incoming call is assuming the risk that the call is important. A television viewer with an answering device may elect to have the call answered by the answering device and “screen” the call if the calling party elects to leave a message. However, the cable subscriber cannot be assured that the calling party will leave a message. Further, given that attention must be diverted from programming to screen the call, the screening option is only marginally better than answering the call.
Service providers have attempted to deal with the conflict between viewing television programming and answering incoming telephone calls by marrying conventional caller ID service with the STB. Caller ID services offered over conventional telephones became viable with the widespread adoption of digital exchanges using a separate call data circuit. Standards for this circuit were adopted internationally with the development of Signaling System 7 (SS7), which is now the standard for connecting public switched telephone networks (PSTNs) world-wide. SS7 allows a caller's exchange to send a Calling Party Number Message (CPNM or CPN), which includes the number of the caller and whether or not the caller wants its number to be blocked. The CPNM is passed all the way to the called party's exchange, where the CPNM is translated into the local form of Caller ID, and blocking is applied if necessary.
AOLTV, WebTV and DirecTV connect the STB to the PSTN to acquire caller ID information. The STB displays the caller ID information on the television screen. While this approach has some limited value, it requires an additional connection between the STB and the interface to the PSTN (typically, a telephone jack connected to inside wiring that terminates at the local loop) that is separate from the video source (cable, satellite, or broadcast). Additionally, for conventional caller ID service to work, the two parties must be on digital exchanges that are linked by SS7. Thus, a cable television viewer who is also a subscriber to VoIP services provided over a cable system cannot use a conventional caller ID service.
What would be useful are systems and methods for displaying a caller ID of an incoming VoIP call on a video display connected to, or integrated with, a video termination device that is connected to a multi-region cable network. The systems and methods would provide means for associating a called number with a video termination device regardless of the location of that device within the multi-region cable network.